Written Answers

Monday 30 July 2001

Scottish Executive

Engineering Industry

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in expanding the engineering skills base in North Ayrshire.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire is currently supporting the training of 208 young people within 44 engineering companies based in North Ayrshire, 152 of whom are Modern Apprentices. SEn Ayrshire also works in partnership with local education and training providers to assist employers on skills development.

Finance

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the recent budget statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government, whether it will give a breakdown of any changes in the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning budget.

Angus MacKay: The Finance Minister’s announcement on 27 June stated that the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department will receive an additional £14 million, £4 million and £3 million over 2001-04 to fund foot-and-mouth disease recovery, cultural industries and assistance for child care for further and higher education students. However, provision for student loans will be reduced as a result of accounting changes and Regional Selective Assistance provision will be reduced to meet forecast demand. These realignments will produce £10 million, £17 million, and £20 million, giving a net change of £4 million, -£13 million and -£17 million over the same period. The new Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) plans will be £2,051.8 million, £2,088.1 million and £2,155.1 million over the three years from 2001-02.

  The revised budget for the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department will be contained within the Executive’s draft budget which will be published in September 2001.

Fisheries

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made with the fishing vessel decommissioning scheme and what criteria are applied in deciding eligibility for the scheme.

Rhona Brankin: We recently laid before the Scottish Parliament legislation to provide for a Scottish decommissioning scheme. Amongst other things, the legislation will lay down basic eligibility criteria for the Scottish scheme. These will require that an applicant’s vessel is registered and:

  is over 10 metres in length;

  has a category A licence (except a pelagic licence);

  has spent a minimum number of days at sea on fishing trips during 1999 and 2000;

  is at least 10 years old;

  has a safety certificate or letter confirming completion of a satisfactory survey, and

  is Scottish based (defined in the legislation).

  The legislation is being introduced following consultation with industry interests. Further consultation is currently under way on the approach to be taken to the evaluation and ranking of individual decommissioning bids. Once the consultation is complete, proposals for the scheme will be finalised, detailed scheme documentation prepared and the scheme opened to bids – probably during August or September.

Fisheries

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the consultation on the Forthcoming Review of the Common Fisheries Policy will be announced.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive conducted a written consultation in Scotland on the European Commission Green Paper on the Future of the CFP between 22 March and 31 May this year. 27 responses were received. A summary of these responses has been prepared and will be placed, along with the full individual responses, in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme consultation will be announced.

Ross Finnie: My department passed copies of the consultation responses to the Scottish Parliament's Reference Centre during the course of week commencing 16 July.

Health

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether health boards are required to replace current out-of-hours services with the NHS24 service.

Susan Deacon: The NHS24 service is being designed to complement and enhance existing health services throughout Scotland and is being developed in partnership with them. It will work with and not replace local GP out-of-hours services.

Health

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent to date on preparations for the introduction of the NHS24 service and what the total cost of implementation will be.

Susan Deacon: Expenditure on the development of the NHS24 project to date is £1.7 million. This includes the cost of an extensive consultation with public and service stakeholders across Scotland, developing a service design blueprint and implementation plan and establishing a HQ and executive team in Glasgow.

  Current work on developing an NHS24 implementation plan will establish an estimate of the total cost of implementing the service across Scotland.

Health

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what consulation has taken place with NHSiS staff, unions, patients or patient representative groups regarding the introduction of the NHS24 service.

Susan Deacon: The NHS24 concept was the product of an extensive public consultation process across Scotland involving a wide range of public and service stakeholders in national and local seminars.

  The NHS24 Project team has adopted a similar open and inclusive approach in designing and developing NHS24 as a new service. A Project Advisory Group has been created to engage and involve key stakeholders with an interest in NHS24 and its development. The group’s broad membership includes the following organisations:

  Scottish Association of Health Councils

  Scottish Consumer Council

  Association of Directors of Social Work

  Scottish Partnership Forum

  British Medical Association

  Medical and Dental Defence Union

  Unison

  Royal College of Midwives

  Royal College of Nursing

  The Academy of Royal College and Faculties in Scotland

  Scottish Association of Community Hospitals

  Royal College of General Practitioners

  Scottish Pharmaceutical Federation

  Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council

  The Faculty of General Dental Practitioners

  The British Dental Association

  The National Association of GP Co-operatives

  Scottish General Practice Committee

  Scottish Ambulance Service

  NHS24 also holds one-to-one meetings with other stakeholders; for example, recently meeting the Scottish Partnership Forum and the Royal College of Nursing to begin detailed discussions on recruitment and partnership working.

Health

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to raise public awareness of the NHS24 service.

Susan Deacon: The concept of NHS24 is the product of extensive consultation with public and service stakeholders across Scotland. Current work on developing an implementation plan for NHS24 envisages the service being rolled out across Scotland from spring 2002. A phased public awareness campaign will begin in July and develop in step with that rollout.

Health

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS operations have taken place in private hospitals in each year from 1995 to date.

Susan Deacon: Reliable data on numbers of operations on NHS patients undertaken in private hospitals are not available.

Health

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area who had operations on a day surgery basis were subsequently admitted to hospital due to complications resulting from the surgery in each of the last three years.

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses in each health board area are trained specifically to counsel and assist victims of strokes.

Susan Deacon: The information requested is not held centrally.

Health

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will scrutinise the guidelines from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network regarding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in case of any bias towards drug therapy.

Malcolm Chisholm: The guideline was seen in draft by the Scottish Executive Health Department's Medical Officers. It covers non-pharmacological interventions as well as drug therapy.

Health

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether planning for the introduction of NHS24 has taken into account the complexities of delivering primary health care in remote and island areas.

Susan Deacon: The NHS24 service is being designed to complement and enhance existing health services throughout Scotland and will be developed in partnership with them. NHS24 has begun discussions with health boards and other partners on the nature of the link they wish to have with NHS24. Local Implementation Teams drawn from the local NHS and its partner agencies are being formed to reach agreements on service delivery arrangements and plan the introduction of the service in each health board area. This will ensure NHS24 will reflect the varied geography and service delivery arrangements in remote and island areas. Initial visits to Shetland and the Western Isles were made on 2 May and 11 June respectively.

Health

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the availability of a C.T. scanner from 9am to 5pm on Mondays to Fridays at Inverclyde Royal Hospital is sufficient to meet current levels of demand and whether it will support increased provision of the C.T. scanner.

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients are seen at the weekly breast clinic at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, how many breast care nurses there are at the hospital, whether this number is sufficient to meet current levels of demand and, if not, how many more nurses would be required to meet demand.

Susan Deacon: This is a matter for Argyll and Clyde Health Board and Argyll and Clyde Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Health

Mr Keith Harding (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to tackle Huntington’s Disease and to support sufferers of the disease.

Malcolm Chisholm: Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a particularly distressing later onset hereditary illness caused by a faulty gene, which affects progressively the individual’s ability to function physically, mentally and emotionally. There is no cure at present. Palliative care for victims of HD is a matter for health boards. A Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) on HD and conditions which produce similar clinical problems, Acquired Brain Injury and Early Onset Dementia, was issued in February 2000. SNAPs provide health boards with good practice recommendations for the planning of services.

  There is a genetic test available which can detect whether or not a person has inherited the faulty gene. Through the four Regional Genetics Advisory Centres, comprehensive specialist genetic services are available to all affected individuals and their families in Scotland. These services include assessment, diagnosis, genetic counselling, the provision of genetic tests for pre-symptomatic diagnosis or pre-natal diagnosis for those who wish to be tested after careful counselling, and psycho-social support for families who need it.

  The Scottish Executive provides funding support to the voluntary organisation, Scottish Huntington’s Association, which offers help and support to those affected by HD, and their families.

Housing (Scotland) Bill

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the legal advice it has received is that Amendment 150 to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, lodged by Jackie Baillie, complies with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jackie Baillie: The Executive did of course consider whether the Housing (Scotland) Bill as amended by Amendment 150 would comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and concluded that it would.

Meat

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received or is aware of any veterinary advice that the human disease Ebola might reach the UK in consignments of smuggled meat.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Ebola virus has not been found in meat imported into the UK. In countries where Ebola occurs, it may affect non-human primates. It has not been found in any other type of animal. As such the virus could in theory be present in meat from primates in outbreak areas. Import of meat from affected animals is however extremely unlikely, not least because infected primates develop the same severe illness as humans. Moreover, as most viruses require living cells in which to survive, it is highly unlikely that the virus would survive in meat.

Mental Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it proposes to introduce guidelines to ensure that patients with mental illness are admitted to hospital in a compassionate and dignified manner.

Malcolm Chisholm: We are committed to working to reduce stigma and improve access to care and support. We have re-affirmed this most recently in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change.

National Parks

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Scottish National Heritage consultation on the proposals for the Cairngorms National Park will be published.

Rhona Brankin: I expect to receive the report from Scottish Natural Heritage in late August. I will immediately make it available on the internet and a limited number of copies will be made available to the Parliament and relevant local authorities. Wide circulation of printed copies will follow shortly afterwards.

Nursing

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursing vacancies there were in each of the last three years, how many there are currently, and what percentage of (a) the total number of nursing posts and (b) the number of whole-time equivalent nursing posts each of these figures represents, broken down by health board area in each case.

Susan Deacon: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-15496 on 10 July 2001.

Roads

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16244 by Sarah Boyack on 26 June 2001, what arrangements are in place to ensure that the cutting of grass verges of the A78 trunk road at Stevenston by Amey Highways Ltd is within the contract specification and to ensure that Amey Highways Ltd have appropriate equipment for this task.

Sarah Boyack: The Scottish Executive employs the Performance Audit Group who audit and inspect the operations carried out by Amey Highways Ltd to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the trunk road maintenance contract.

Sport

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage the establishment of a sports-specific first aid certificate for sports coaches.

Allan Wilson: We have no plans to encourage the establishment of a sports-specific first aid certificate for sports coaches. However,  sportscotland’s Coaching Team administer a number of workshops on behalf of the National Coaching Foundation. Injury Prevention and Management is just one in a series of 12 new workshops which consist of highly practical and applied three-hour sessions. On completion of this workshop coaches should be able to:

  Identify potential problems in training and/or competition which may lead to injury.

  Modify their practices and those of their performers to reduce the likelihood of injury.

  Assess the severity of injury and respond appropriately.

  Define the type and grade of, and deal with, soft tissue injury.

  Assess if a performer is ready to resume training and/or competition.

  In the financial year ending 31 March 2001, 183 coaches had successfully completed the Injury Prevention and Management workshop. The workshop was also made available to approximately 30 Millennium Volunteers aged from 16 to 18.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what severance payments will be made to each of the departing directors of the Scottish Tourist Board and from which budget any such monies will be paid.

Ms Wendy Alexander: This is an operational matter for visitscotland which will make any payments from its Running Costs provision.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how the incoming directors of the Scottish Tourist Board will be recruited and what the cost will be of this recruitment process.

Ms Wendy Alexander: This is an operational matter for visitscotland. The three incoming senior directors have already been recruited.

Tourism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it was represented at official level on the panel for the selection of the incoming directors of the Scottish Tourist Board.

Ms Wendy Alexander: No.

Waste Management

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to both the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology’s report, Management of Nuclear Waste , and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA) board paper 32/00, which make reference to changing SEPA’s powers relating to the control of radioactive waste, what the implications of any such change would be with respect to the powers of the Executive over the storage of radioactive waste, in particular, radioactive waste for which there is no authorised route for disposal.

Rhona Brankin: The response of the UK Government and devolved administrations to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology Report on the Management of Nuclear Waste was announced to the Scottish Parliament on 25 October 1999. A copy is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. no. 7754).

  The response indicated that views on the possibility of new statutory powers for the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) over the storage of wastes on nuclear licensed sites will be sought in due course in the forthcoming consultation on radioactive waste management policy.

Wildlife

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all licences which are currently available for the killing of wildlife; what the cost of each licence is, and how many of each have been issued in each of the last three years.

Rhona Brankin: All wild birds and certain species of animals are protected under a variety of wildlife-related legislation including, amongst others, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c) Regulations 1994; the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and the Conservation of Seals Act 1970. In certain strictly regulated circumstances this legislation permits protected wildlife to be taken or killed under licence. There are no charges made for such licences. Certain species may also be legally killed or taken without a licence during the relevant open season.

  Given the complexity of the information requested, I shall write to the member separately to provide a detailed breakdown of licences issued in the past three years and shall place a copy of this information in the Parliament Reference Centre.